Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-13-2021, 11:21 PM   #61
lugaid
 
lugaid's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
That's not what the trait is assuming. You should be starting the campaign off with all the people around where you are knowing about your reputation. Without the -2 reaction, all you have is a 5 point minor curse.
See, that's even worse for the game than the disadvantage as written, which is just dumb, distorts the campaign for no benefit to anyone but the player taking the disadvantage, and over-valued. The disadvantage specifies that:

Quote:
People who understand what a Weirdness Magnet is (and that you are one) react to you at -2.
So, no, by the disadvantage written in the book, you should not be "starting the campaign off with all the people around where you are knowing about your reputation". It's a small group of people who are affected by the reputation component.
lugaid is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-14-2021, 12:32 AM   #62
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

A fair version of weirdness magnet (or any other magnet) is:

Plot Preference (0)
All PCs are the kind of person that attract and are attracted to unusual events; that's why they're PCs. If you specify a plot preference for your PC, that is a suggestion to the GM about what sorts of plots you would like to see. If the tendency to get into that sort of event has social effects for you, buy an appropriate Reputation.

Weirdness Magnet winds up being somewhere between [-1] and [-5] in this model, as it's a -2 reputation with a limited group that may also have a limited chance of recognition.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-14-2021, 04:13 AM   #63
kirbwarrior
 
kirbwarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Different genre and campaign wants can push certain traits off the table (and certain traits only mean something in certain ones). Ignoring those specifics;

Terminally Ill is the only trait I outright ban. As PK puts it, it's barely worth the quirk "I will replace my character at some point in the future". It's fine as an affliction, though. But it's really a free 99pts with the caveat that the player has some personality choices based on it.

Wild Talent is all but banned. Not out of choice, but there's zero campaign where a player ever considered it. However, I recently added a house rule to significantly cheapen it, might be worth taking. Other traits already got changed costs, but many of those were "I want this and only consider not taking because of price" instead of "I'm not sure I ever want this and especially not at this price".

I actually have no issue with Weirdness Magnet. It's an uncommon -2 to reactions (-5pts) and then -10pts of inconveniencing the player (sometimes less, sometimes more, sometimes positively, the randomness keeps players on their toes). I can't remember the last time someone took it as a disadvantage, but I do see it crop up as a "weak" Whimsy with Controllable Disadvantage: Weirdness Magnet.

One of my playgroups has jokingly banned IQ8 (and it's such an involved and stupid joke I couldn't possibly hope to explain it to someone who doesn't know).

Common Sense doesn't actually do anything (just like in real life). I'm not here to punish my players, everyone is stupid at least once (per character!), and there's always the chance of miscommunication. I offer a better version of it just as how I GM. However, I did make a new trait based on the idea of it for the same price; If the player is in a situation and the GM knows the character's choice is stupid but the character can't possibly know that, then I roll their IQ to see if they 'realized' something about their choice that made them know it was bad even if they hadn't figured it out yet. But that doesn't actually make sense with the name Common Sense (maybe this should be Intuition).

EDIT: I remembered more about attributes. No IQ 5 or less (must be sapient), no HT under 10 (and often under 12), and no one has tried to convince me they should be able to take DX under 8. I don't need a minimum Per or Will because everyone is scared of bringing those below 10, and ST just lives in its own world.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish View Post
While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
kirbwarrior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-14-2021, 06:08 AM   #64
Not another shrubbery
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Quote:
Originally Posted by lugaid View Post
See, that's even worse for the game than the disadvantage as written, which is just dumb, distorts the campaign for no benefit to anyone but the player taking the disadvantage, and over-valued. The disadvantage specifies that:

"People who understand what a Weirdness Magnet is (and that you are one) react to you at -2."

So, no, by the disadvantage written in the book, you should not be "starting the campaign off with all the people around where you are knowing about your reputation". It's a small group of people who are affected by the reputation component.
Taking this to a new thread. Why Weirdness Magnet is valued at -15

Last edited by Not another shrubbery; 12-14-2021 at 07:10 AM. Reason: added link
Not another shrubbery is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-14-2021, 07:21 PM   #65
kirbwarrior
 
kirbwarrior's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

I don't think this quite counts, but Unnatural is another trait that is "forbidden" in the sense that no one (even myself) will ever take it. Logically, it's a fantastic deal (use it to offset points in HP and Damage Divisor!), but everyone is far too scared of it.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish View Post
While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
kirbwarrior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-14-2021, 07:27 PM   #66
RGTraynor
 
RGTraynor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pioneer Valley
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Good heavens, I disallow a great whopping heap of them, quite aside from that I run Renaissance-tech fantasy and that (say) cyberwear's inappropriate. A number of Advantages/Disadvantages I slap a "restricted" tag on it, with the understanding that I will (a) need a good explanation, (b) may well require Unusual Background, and (c) reserve the right to reject it outright at my whim.

Disads like Bad Temper, Bully, Cowardice, Kleptomania, all that lot carries the "restricted" tag: these things are likely to make interaction with other PCs hard, and I dislike that as an unvarying thing.

I'm also not keen on -15+ Disads; they tend to dominate play and sidetrack plots, again making like harder for a party. Someone taking a -20+ Enemy just made the campaign about the Enemy-vs-PC, and I'm not keen on that.

I also faithfully follow the dictum that a disadvantage that doesn't disadvantage the character isn't worth points -- hence my down on Terminally Ill, which carries no penalties and has no effect other than that the sheet gets torn up after Point X.
__________________
My gaming blog: Apotheosis of the Invisible City

"Call me old-fashioned, but after you're dead, I don't think you should be entitled to a Dodge any more." - my wife

It's not that I don't understand what you're saying. It's that I disagree with what you're saying.
RGTraynor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-14-2021, 07:31 PM   #67
RGTraynor
 
RGTraynor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pioneer Valley
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
Another form of Alternate Weirdness Magnet/Trouble Magnet that I've occasionally thought about (which I though was in GURPS Mysteries, but if so I haven't found it again) is Murder Magnet: Like Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, Brother Cadfael, Father Brown, and other fictional 'amateur sleuths,' people have a habit of getting dead around you, though usually not in a way that has the cops thinking you must have done it (if you live in a time and place that has cops as we think of them).
My wife and I have long been of the belief that the longsuffering residents of Cabot Cove would have surely sacrificed Jessica Fletcher to whatever gods would remove the curse she laid upon that town, that anyone who knew her could be murdered at any time. Good grief, that poor small town had more murders a year than all the rest of Maine combined did.
__________________
My gaming blog: Apotheosis of the Invisible City

"Call me old-fashioned, but after you're dead, I don't think you should be entitled to a Dodge any more." - my wife

It's not that I don't understand what you're saying. It's that I disagree with what you're saying.
RGTraynor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-14-2021, 08:30 PM   #68
RyanW
 
RyanW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Quote:
Originally Posted by RGTraynor View Post
My wife and I have long been of the belief that the longsuffering residents of Cabot Cove would have surely sacrificed Jessica Fletcher to whatever gods would remove the curse she laid upon that town, that anyone who knew her could be murdered at any time. Good grief, that poor small town had more murders a year than all the rest of Maine combined did.
One person determined that over the run of the show, they averaged 5.3 murders per year (many episodes took place elsewhere). The town has a population of 3560. Which gives it a murder rate that would make you think about finding a safer place in New England to settle down, like Derry, Innsmouth, or Amity Island.

But it is not only a tourist destination, but also hosts many people who maintain a summer home but whose primary residences are elsewhere. These people would not be counted in the population of Cabot Cove. Many such places that host large seasonal populations really do have high reported crime rates, because of the misleadingly low official population. If you included all the folks from Boston, the murder rate looks much less implausible.
__________________
RyanW
- Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats.
RyanW is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
advantages, disadvantages

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:28 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.